Advent is a time of prophecies–looking back and looking forward at the same time. What has the past given us and how does it point to the future?
Others have said it before, but I believe Benedict XVI chose his name because of the great St Benedict–not really because of any of his fifteen Benedictine predecessors. The time of St Benedict was a time of social decay, financial collapse, moral decline and eventual anarchy.
St Benedict retreated to the hills and hunkered down in founded small communities devoted to prayer, to liturgy, to work and to study. The battened down the hatches, and like Noah in the ark, settled in to brave the storm. Brave the storm they did, and in doing so the Benedictines established the foundation for the greatest flowering of Christendom the world has ever seen.
Is this where we are headed and is this why Benedict chose his name? Is the model for the next age of the church the Benedictine model? T.S.Eliot predicted that only a new monastic movement would keep alive the flame of culture in the coming dark age of nihilism and violence and despair.
While looking at this, it is good to remember that Benedict was actually a layman, and that his communities were mostly communities of laymen. With this in mind, it is encouraging to see the wave of new ecclesial movements across the church. These new movements are largely founded and driven by lay people. They are gathering together to grow in Christ, to renew their spiritual lives and to hold together in community. Perhaps they did not know that they were being drawn together to brave the coming storm, but God knew what he was doing in drawing them together and establishing the new ecclesial communities.
Ahh, now, I hear you say, “You can take the boy out of fundamentalism, but you can’t take the fundamentalism out of the boy. This is apocalyptic talk Father, come now. Let’s not get into the ‘Tim LaHaye Left Behind’ mentality. Perk up. Things are not so bad!”
If you say this, perhaps you are right. I hope you are. I don’t like to be a harbinger of doom any more than anybody else does.
Nevertheless…it is Advent.
what do you think of Opus Dei? They are certainly trying to live a monastic life as laymen. I think they bring a lot of energy and broad world view to the church. They’ve had a few minor scandals, and I’m not sure why they need the celibate numerary-layer, but I think they’re mostly alright (so far).
Yes, we are not called to say whether things are bad or not in the prophetic vein of the overall picture. (We are called to say certain things are bad or good of course.) But we are called to watch, and watch, and watch, then call a spade a spade. Oddly enough, when somebody does this, he is seen by the majority as a complete nutcase.Social, financial, and political; all these could be poised to totally collapse simultaneously, or one after the other, with very short gaps in between. And the fact is, the way things look right now, it looks like it really could happen. We must not deny that possibility merely because it seems extreme; because we are not wanting to be seen as harbingers of doom. Of course it is extreme – and it could happen, in this new year.Even the MSM talks, without a hint of a doubt, about a definite financial recession. What does that mean? It means there is not going to be a recession, but a full-blown collapse. It would be nice if we were entering a “second depression”, but I don’t think there is going to be a second depression. A depression is called a depression because it has an ascension afterwards with which it can be compared. Perhaps our financial situation is on the brink of something it will never “recover” from, as in it will be so bad that people in future generations will, by their own choice, not return to the capitalism we have birthed, for they will know what a beast it is. Maybe they will call it not the collapse, but the awakening.Anyways the point is this: if we realize right now where our true treasure lies and act accordingly then all of this portended chaos and collapse will not be a source of despair but one of purification.Yeah, I agree that that is why our Pope chose the name he did. It’s not doom if we see it the right way. Or would we rather prefer the continuation of the cultural lie; the horrific normalization of the mass, unprecedented slaughter of the unborn children?
Most apposite comment, Father – the night before the death of John Paul the Great Benedict(Ratzinger) was receiving a prize from the Benedictines – the “key” to this pontificate is St. Benedict.
Synchronicity! – I just posted something analogous on my blog (maybe with a bit more silliness)…
Paul,“we are called to watch, and watch, and watch, then call a spade a spade. Oddly enough, when somebody does this, he is seen by the majority as a complete nutcase.”Great line. Too true!But the ups and downs of the moment, financial or whatever, are not what we should be worrying about. Sudden collapse is not going to happen. Rather, we are in a slow collapse that is playing out over many centuries, as faith drains away imperceptibly, generation by generation. Newman saw it in the 1840’s, and wrote in 1873:“…I think that the trials which lie before us are such as would appall and make dizzy even such courageous hearts as St. Athanasius, St. Gregory I or St. Gregory VII. And they would confess that, dark as the prospect of their own day was to them severally, ours has a darkness different in kind from any that has been before it . . . Christianity has never yet had experience of a world simply irreligious. The ancient world of Greece and Rome was full of superstition but not of infidelity, for they believed in the moral governance of the world and their first principles were the same as ours . . . But we are now coming to a time when the world does not acknowledge our first principles…”
Actually, Pope Benedict XVI explicitly tied the choice of his name to both St. Benedict of Nursia who is, as the Pope said, “the patron Saint of Europe” and to Benedict XV, the Pope of Fatima and the greatest upheaval that Europe had experienced up until that time: the First World War and its attendant convulsions, such as the Bolshevik revolution.
Good point Fr Greg
This isn’t apocalyptic, it’s honest! I wonder what a monastic resurgence will look like today? As depressing as it might sound, maybe a collapsing society could be a good thing; we’ve had it far too easy for far too long, and people very often return to God in times of crisis. Maybe there’s a silver lining!
Well, if it at all apocalyptic now, Advent, is the right time to think about it.By the way, Father, I just finished (‘devoured’?) “Father Elijah”: the similarities to things in the here and now are disturbing. Have you read the prequel, “Sophia House”?
Oh aye; as a Benedictine Oblate I can say that as you, many have sought to “leave behind” the toxicity that has enveloped our culture, our world. The Plain Catholics have once again begun to emerge in larger numbers. While the charism is about 100 years old or so, tis a concept that is timeless: that of living simply and encouraging one another. The Rule of St. Benedict is the most consistently referenced spiritual work when seeking the solution and the Gospel approach to dailiness.In short, I should say you are spot on!